Friday, November 03, 2006

Current form:Something has to give with this one! The side with the worst away form possibly in living memory against a side who have been woeful both home and away this season, but are unbeaten in three (although the sole win was in the Carling Cup), and the guys over at Soccer Shout believe this recent form will be a springboard to take all three points. One thing in Charlton's favour is a good defensive record and have not conceded in the last 293 minutes.Although our home form and defensive record is amongst the best in the league, this contrasts terribly with our away form where we are shipping goals from all angles.Despite the talk of taking the Middlesbrough result into this game, history this season tells us that a home result is by no means any indicator of forthcoming away win.However, our recent form is fairly good against Charlton and we of course did the 'double' over them last season.

Keys to the game:Goals. Plain and simple. Both sides are struggling to score goals this season, but worryingly for us our away results show us conceding far too many, and the manner of some of these is not good enough if we are to have any ambition in this league.I really think the first goal will be important, and especially so if it is ourselves who score it as this will increase the pressure on Charlton and certainly affect their confidence.The game could be more about work-rate and energy than skill and technical ability so both sides will be looking towin the graft battle.

Why City will win:As pleasing as the result was on Monday night, the manner of the performance in the added energy and fight that was shown was telling. Charlton have been poor this season, with Iain Dowie under pressure struggling to replace Curbishley and our previous results against them have been good.

Why City will lose:Because we are away from home and haven't strung successive wins together for 39 matches. Charlton - whilst not winning, have picked up a couple of points and have perhaps been unlucky at times to not convert these to victories.They will certainly be looking to this game as one to take three points from.